An MKAL bus journey

What every mystery book club needs is a mystery knitalong! So of course our Summer of Mystery club features an MKAL!

Our mysterious knit is a shawl (or wrap), and I’ve based its four clues around the plot and action of Hide My Eyes (1958) (US title: Tether’s End) one of the last novels that Margery Allingham produced, but among the first of her books that I read many years ago. I was bowled over when I first encountered this book, and it definitely ranks among my favourite titles on our club reading list. There’s just something about the ineluctable movement of the plot (which you, the reader, can do absolutely nothing to arrest), Allingham’s vividly drawn personalities, and the book’s equally vivid sense of place, that make it completely gripping and un-put-down-able.

The world of Hide My Eyes is that of 1950s London.

A world of dark rain-slicked streets and bright lights in the smog.

Of old restaurants, and variety acts . . .

. . . and a new consumer culture . . .

A world where the everyday figures of labouring people might move unnoticed through the city streets . . . .

. . . and where moral innocence and darkness meet.

A world of decaying genteel neighbourhoods, and new urban environments . . .

. . . of 24 extraordinary hours in the life of the novel’s characters, while the everyday life of the vital city just carries on around them.

And of buses.

. . . perhaps most of all, of buses.

The cat-and-mouse action of Hide My Eyes criss-crosses London, from west to east, from Bayswater / Paddington, through Soho and the West End theatre district, and then East (by bus), to the Regent’s canal basin and the dockside. I’ve named the MKAL after the crime with which Hide My Eyes begins: The Goff Place Mystery (a place, which like many of the novel’s locations, is loosely fictionalised)

Each of our MKAL clues is associated with one of the novel’s characters, and might also be regarded as a stage (or stop) on our West-East cross-London bus journey.

Just like the novel, the mystery knit involves twists and turns, and changes of direction. Some of the clues feel more “traditional” (much like their associated characters) while others have a more modern (or modernist) aesthetic.

Unlike the action of the novel (which mostly takes place in a single day) our MKAL has a much more leisurely pace, unfolding over four months, allowing time and space for knitters of all abilities (and speeds). Do join us, and enjoy a journey across 1950s London, through the words of Allingham’s brilliant late novel, and the stitches on your needles!

But what about the yarn? How should I prepare for the MKAL?

Those of you who have signed up for the club have already been asking a lot of questions about the yarn, swatching and preparation for the MKAL, so I thought I’d include some of that information here.

The MKAL design uses 5 shades of fingering weight yarn: as a ballpark, you’ll need 100g or less of each shade (more precise and detailed yarn quantities for each shade are included in your welcome pack).

I worked with three test knitters on this design, each of whom selected her own 5 shade palette, using the following basic parameters:

Shade A: A dark shade

Shade B: A light shade

Shades C and D: two shades of medium value (that is, not too dark or too light) that also contrast well with one another. 

Shade E: A pop shade (that is, a shade that stands out in your palette because it is lighter or brighter)

The palettes Claire, Maylin and Dawn developed through swatching are each very different . . .

. . . but, following our basic parameters, each works equally well for this design!

So if you would like to join Claire, Maylin and Dawn, and get ahead developing your palette for the Goff Place Mystery MKAL: after you sign up , you’ll receive a welcome pack (to download) which includes detailed swatching instructions and information about yarn quantities.

Once sign ups are closed, we will put some Milarrochy Tweed MKAL yarn packs, in a wide range of different palettes on sale in the KDD shop: you can then use your club discount to purchase yarn from us, or (of course) you can simply use yarn from your own stash, in five shades of fingering weight yarn that knit to gauge.

Claire has already set up a dedicated Goff Place Mystery thread on Ravelry: feel free to seek advice, share your palettes, or ask any questions there.

So will you join us for the Goff Place Mystery MKAL?

(Club sign ups close April 21st)

(The Robert Frank images – which for me powerfully evoke the world of Allingham’s Hide my Eyes – are available in his London / Wales (1951-3) collection, the project which Frank completed before his era-defining work of documentary photography, The Americans (1958)